NCJ Number
215745
Date Published
June 2005
Length
58 pages
Annotation
This report on Phase II of a postimplementation evaluation of New York City's new system for recommending release-on-recognizance (ROR) at a defendant's arraignment examines failure-to-appear (FTA) rates linked with various categories of the new recommendation system.
Abstract
Compared with the old recommendation system for ROR, the new system recommended a considerably higher proportion of defendants for ROR without increasing their FTA rate. The new system also improved prediction by distinguishing defendants on the basis of risk of failure. Defendants categorized as low risk had the lowest FTA rate; whereas defendants classified as high risk had the highest FTA rate. The FTA rate for the moderate-risk defendants was midway between the low-risk and high-risk groups. The old recommendation system did not accurately distinguish low-risk from moderate-risk defendants. Defendants categorized as moderate risk or low risk had higher FTA rates than defendants classified as low risk. This pattern held regardless of a defendant's race/ethnicity. The evaluation concluded that the new system should continue to perform reliably over time. The new recommendation system is based on a defendant's ties to the community and criminal history. It considers whether the defendant has an address in the New York City area; has a working residential telephone or cell phone; is employed, in school, or in a training program full-time; expects someone at his/her arraignment; has any prior bench warrants; or has any open case counts. Data for Phase II of the evaluation were drawn from a cohort of arrests made from November 1, 2003, through January 31, 2004. The analysis involved 47,914 defendants. Defendants' cases were tracked through March 30, 2004. Ultimately the study sample contained 21,718 defendants who were given pretrial release. 15 tables, 9 references, and appended descriptions of computation methods